The present application is directed to paperboard packages and, more particularly, to improved flap sealing for paperboard packages.
The present invention also relates to a blank for forming an outer sleeve, an outer sleeve and a packaging system, more specifically, but not exclusively to a lockable packaging system optionally for use as child-proof packaging. Further specifically, but not exclusively, the invention relates to a mechanism for and a method of mitigating against bowing of panels and accidental or unintentional unlocking of an inner slide card from an outer sleeve. Further specifically, but not exclusively, the invention relates to a mechanism for and a method of mitigating against peeling the corners of closure flaps which may be attempted in an effort to break into the package.
Manufacturers and retailers of consumer goods, such as pharmaceuticals, software, electronics, health and beauty products and the like, typically package their products in tamper resistant security packages. For example, many consumer goods are packaged in blister or clamshell packages formed by positioning a consumer good in a flanged blister made from various polymeric and/or paperboard materials and sealing the flanged blister between two paperboard substrates. Consumers have voiced disapproval of such packages because of the difficulty of opening the same and the potential for being cut on a rough edge especially of plastic blisters. Packages may therefore be made based largely on paperboard, for example, NATRALOCK packages. Packaging made primarily of paperboard is more sustainable than packaging made from petroleum-based plastics. The paperboard used in such packages may be tear-resistant. One of the surfaces of the paperboard, for example the inner or unprinted surface, which may also be a tear-resistant surface, may include a heat-seal coating. Such heat seal coatings are most advantageously used by sealing a surface with the heat seal coating to another surface with the heat seal coating. It is sometimes difficult to design the package to most effectively incorporate the heat sealing.
Accordingly, there is a need for a package with improved sealing of the various panels, in particular, the end flaps of the package.
Also in the field of packaging, particularly in the field of healthcare and medication packaging, it is often required to provide consumers or patients with secure packaging that has child-resistant features to restrict or prevent access to the package contents by a child. Many packages are available that comprise an inner slide card that directly or indirectly holds articles such as medicaments, tablets or vitamins optionally in sealed blister cavities. The inner slide card, with the blisters of articles, is slidable inside an outer sleeve and is usually retained and locked inside the outer sleeve, optionally by a tail locking flap of the inner slide card engaging an aperture on the outer sleeve. An unlocking mechanism is usually provided on the outer sleeve to permit the release of the inner slide card (optionally by disengaging the locking flap of the inner slide card from the locking aperture of the outer sleeve). Such unlocking mechanisms often require some dexterity to operate or require user realization that coordinated operation of more than one feature is required; this may make the package child-resistant.
However, known packages can suffer from a failure of the locking mechanism if a user squeezes the sides of the outer sleeve toward one another causing the top and bottom walls of the outer sleeve to bow. This bowing action is sometimes referred to as “pillowing”. In some known packages, as a result of the outer sleeve pillowing, the locking mechanism is accidentally or inadvertently disengaged.
The present invention also seeks to provide an improvement in the field of packaging, more specifically, but not exclusively, in the field of packages comprising inner slide-cards and outer-sleeves by providing a blank for forming an outer sleeve, an outer sleeve and a package system comprising a mechanism to prevent or mitigate against accidental disengagement of the locking mechanism as a result of pillowing. The mechanism to prevent or mitigate against the effects of bowing or pillowing and a method of forming the mechanism may have advantageous application outside of application to outer sleeve and inner slide card packages, as such aspects of the invention relate to the mechanism and method separately.